台灣大學生與教師對商用英語課程之認知個案研究

A Case Study of Taiwanese EFL Students’ and their Instructor’s Perceptions towards an Undergraduate Business English Course

徐詩涵(Shih-Han Hsu)

指導教授 ： 曾明怡

中原大學/人文與教育學院/應用外語研究所/碩士(2013年)

https://doi.org/10.6840/CYCU.2013.00012

摘要

多位英語教學研究學者(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Hyland, 2006)於相關研究中均強調需求分析(Needs Analysis)在專業英語(English for Specific Purposes)課程中的重要性。然而，在以英語為外語的情境(English as a Foreign Language)中，目前已發表的期刊文獻針對學生對於專業英語課程之需求分析的相關質性研究並不多。而目前探討台灣學生對於商用英語(English for Business Purposes)課程的需求分析研究也相當缺乏。因此，本研究旨在探討主修英語的台灣大學生及其授課教師對於商用英語課程之需求有何相似或相異的看法。研究資料含學生態度與課程需求問卷、三位學生和任課教師的深入訪談及學生撰寫的商業書信。本研究採用敘述性統計分析問卷、內容分析檢視訪談資料與文體分析探討學生撰寫之商用書信寫作的特色。研究者透過質性三角驗證法蒐集並整合不同研究資料。主要的研究結果顯示，來自不同系所的授課教師與修課學生對於其商用英語課程的定義有所不同。因此雙方對於課程的期待、需求、以及困難度會受到此差異的影響。鑒於本研究結果，研究者提出了專業英語課程設計相關之教學與研究建議。期盼本研究對於從事專業英語教學的人員有些許的幫助，以設計出更有效且符合學生需求的專業英語課程。

關鍵字

需求分析 ； 商用英語 ； 專業英語

並列摘要

A number of scholars emphasize the importance of needs analysis (NA) in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Hyland, 2006). However, so far in the EFL context, the published work on the qualitative investigation into students’ needs toward ESP courses is sparse. What is more, the previous studies on English for Business Purposes (EBP) put less emphasis on understanding the needs of students. Therefore, the present qualitative study aims to fill the gap in the existing ESP/EBP literature by exploring the possible gap between what the instructor expects the EBP course should be and what the learners desire to learn. The focus lies on the discussion of the perceptual similarities and differences between the English-major students and the course instructor in terms of their needs. The main data sources include the survey questionnaires, in-depth semi-structured interviews with three focal students and the instructor, and students’ business writing pieces. The research integrates different types of analyses: the brief descriptive statistics of the questionnaires, the content analysis of the students’ and the instructor’s interview data, and the genre analysis of students’ business writing pieces. The key findings illustrate that as the course instructor and the students are from different disciplines, their expectations of the course nature may influence their expectations, needs, and difficulties. Based on the findings, the researcher provides some pedagogical implications and suggestions. Hopefully, this study can shed more light on designing and implementing the ESP course, to help ESP practitioners customize a more effective course to fit their learners’ specific needs.

並列關鍵字

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) ； Needs Analysis (NA) ； English for Business Purposes (EBP)

參考文獻

West, R. (1997). Needs analysis: state of the art. In R. Howard & G. Brown (Eds.), Teacher education for language for specific purposes (pp. 68-79). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD.

Arvani, M. (2006). A Discourse Analysis of Business Letters Written by Iranians & Native Speakers. The Asian ESP Journal, 1(2), 12-23.

Bacha, N. N., & Bahous, R. (2008). Contrasting views of business students’ writing needs in an EFL environment. English for Specific Purposes, 27, 74-93.

Belcher, D. D. (2006). English for specific purposes: Teaching to perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study and everyday life. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 133-156.

Berwick, R. (1989). Needs assessment in language programming: from theory to practice. In: Johnson, R. K. (Ed). The second language curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.